Pop & Rock News

Irma Thomas has been thoroughly appreciated by British music fans and musicians for a very long time, though the
first some of us knew of her was the original recording of "Time Is On My Side" - a version that beat The Rolling
Stones' cover hands down for intensity. Enjoy her earlier work which is represented here on glorious vinyl.

The Sound Of Johnny Cash, Johnny's new album on Colombia, hit the shops in 1962. Accompanied by his
faithful Tennessee Two the LP offered up the usual selection of Cash originals ("Sing It Pretty, Sue"; "You
Remembered Me") together with a variety of cover versions.
It was during the year following the release of this superb LP, that things began to change for the better. But
back then in 1962 - the year he confirmed his love for June Carter, performed for US troops in Korea, played
Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl - this was The Sound Of Johnny Cash...

To call "Rumble", one of Link Wray's first instrumentals influential, would be a serious understatement. The
Who's Pete Townshend went so far as to say, 'If it hadn't been for Link Wray and Rumble, I never would have
picked up a guitar.' Wray followed the single's success with his 1960 debut album on Epic Records, "Link Wray
& The Wraymen", listen to it all over again in all its glory, on brilliant vinyl!

Another unmissable, scorching Matsuli revive! Tete Mbambisa and co, chasing the mbaqanga in Trane. Five originals and Love For Sale, from Johannesburg, 1969. 'Both urban Africans and urban Americans were consciously crafting 'modern' music - and in South Africa's case, it was a modernism deliberately and defiantly set in opposition to the narrow, backwards-looking parochialism of apartheid, where some white universities did not even permit gender-mixed dancing until the 1970s. The sophisticated, snappily-dressed black players of South Africa's cities in the 1960s were not trying to 'be like' America; rather, they were enacting in their performance, and reaching through their horns for what a new South Africa might sound like.' 180g vinyl with excellent sound; photographs from the Ian Bruce Huntley archive and concert bills; extended notes. Pure worries — 'inhlupeko' means 'distress' — very warmly recommended.

Dolly Parton had a number of hits in the late '60s as Porter Wagoner's duet partner, yet solo success eluded her until her 1971 album Coat Of Many Colors. The title track was
a Top Ten single, and it effectively became her signature song, largely because it was a sweetly autobiographical tune about Dolly's childhood.

That song, along with its two hit predecessors, 'Traveling Man' and 'My Blue Tears,' were evidence that Parton was a strong songwriter, but the full album reveals the true depth of her talents. She wrote seven of the ten songs (Wagoner wrote the other three), none of which is filler.

A remarkably consistent album, in terms of songwriting and performances, but also remarkably diverse, revealing that Dolly can handle ballads, Country-Rockers, tearjerkers,
and Country-Pop with equal aplomb.

Recorded in Berkeley, CA and Houston, TX during the winter of 1961-62, Lightnin' Sam Hopkins features a stripped-down blues trio on some of the most intimate and powerful recordings of Hopkins' long and storied career. An absolute classic of electric Texas blues reissued on LP in a deluxe tip-on jacket. Limited edition of 500 on gold vinyl.

Regularly cited as one of the greatest pure Rock stars of all time, Philip Lynott had already guided hard rock heroes Thin Lizzy for over a decade and nine studio albums before embarking on his first solo effort, Solo in Soho, in
1980. Current and former Lizzy members guested on the album including Scott Gorham, Brian Downey, Snowy White, and Gary Moore. Brian Robertson also contributed to the writing of Girls,

Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler plays on 'King's Call', a lament to Elvis Presley. Huey Lewis plays harmonica on 'Tattoo (Giving It All Up For Love)' and 'Ode To A Black Man'. Lewis later covered the former on his 1982 album, Picture This.

'Yellow Pearl' was released as a single in two remixed versions - the first of these being later used as the theme tune from 1981-1986 for the British music TV programme Top Of The Pops.

For what would be his 10th album release, Sun continued to mine its deep reservoir of Cash recordings for Now Here's Johnny Cash. Inaugural single 'Hey Porter' makes its first LP appearance and signals a recurring theme for Cash's songs, trains and the American railroad system. It also contains a cover of Don Gibson's 'Oh Lonesome Me,' which hit #13 on the Country Singles Chart and #93 on the Pop Singles Chart. Though well into his Columbia career at this point, Sam Phillips and Sun continued to be a major part of Cash's success.

Blues For Salvador was released in 1989. Dedicated to his wife, Deborah Santana, the record was released as a solo project, without the Santana band. It won the 1989 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, his first Grammy ever.

On previous solo albums, Santana had made noticeable stylistic changes and worked with Jazz, Pop, and even Country musicians. On this, his fourth Carlos Santana release, the line between a 'solo' and a 'group' project is blurred; this record is really a catchall of Santana band outtakes and stray tracks.

Included are an instrumental version of 'Deeper, Dig Deeper' from Freedom, and an alternate take of 'Hannibal' from Zebop!, as well as 'Now That You Know' from the group's 1985 tour. 'Trane' features jazz drummer Tony Williams on drums.

Liebe Freunde: Heute bei uns zu Gast im Rockpalast: The Icebreakers!" Mit diesen Worten moderierte
Albrecht Metzger am 26. November 1980 eine vierköpfige Blues-Band an, die dem Publikum in der
Dortmunder Westfalenhalle noch relativ fremd war. Entsprechend verhalten wirkte zunächst der Empfang,
doch nach rund zehn Minuten brandete Applaus auf: Nach dem Opener "Sweet Home Chicago" und "She's
So Fine" betrat Albert Collins die Bühne und zog die Fans unmittelbar in seinen Bann: "Listen Here". Schon
nach dem fulminanten Intro war das Eis gebrochen! Mit ebenso verschmitztem wie verschwitztem Gesicht
entlockte der "Master of the Telecaster" seiner Fender die für ihn typischen Blue Notes. Auch "Cold Cold
Feeling" zeugte von Collins' Können. Mit seinen schlanken Fingern und ohne das sonst übliche Plektrum
traktierte der "Iceman" die sechs Saiten seines Instruments in unnachahmlicher Manier. Ungewöhnlich auch,
dass Albert Collins die Gitarre nicht wie üblich am Gurt über den Rücken laufend hielt, sondern nur über dem
rechten Arm trug. Das verlieh ihm mehr Bewegungsfreiheit, die er reichlich nutzte ... "Live At Rockpalast" ist
ein zeitloses Dokument der Musikgeschichte, das bis heute nichts von seiner Faszination verloren hat. Das
Konzert erscheint in einer Box im CD-Format. Enthalten sind zwei CDs, eine DVD, viele Fotos und
professionelle Linernotes.
Seite

+DVD

TOO MUCH - The British HMV Singles '57 - '58 comes hot on the heels of LOVE ME The British HMV Singles '56 - '57 Volume 1 (VTRLP2038). This stunning must have vinyl offering from Vee-Tone Records, concludes their homage to Elvis Presley's highly collectible British HMV singles. Featuring all 5 HMV singles from 1957 to 1958, and including 'All Shook Up' (HMV POP 359), Elvis' very first UK number 1 single (plus bonus tracks from Elvis' two HMV EPs, 'Love Me Tender' and 'Good Rockin' Tonight'). When Elvis signed his new recording contract in November 1955, taking him from Sun Records in Memphis, to national music giant RCA Victor, nobody could have predicted the influence he would have on the course of popular music worldwide. Elvis' pioneering, early UK singles were released on EMIs, HMV label before being moved by British Decca over to RCA/RCA Victor in 1958. LOVE ME The British HMV Singles '56 - '57 (volume 1) and TOO MUCH The British HMV Singles '57 - '58 (volume 2), chart Elvis' meteoric rise in Britain.

500 Limited Edition
Quality 180g black vinyl / 180g coloured vinyl
Full colour inner sleeve
Liner notes

Contains all 5 British HMV singles from April '57 to January '58 in chronological order (plus bonus tracks taken from Elvis' two HMV EPs 'Love Me Tender' and 'Good Rockin' Tonight').

Unreleased 1971 live concert from Denmark, previously only available via DVD. Double, 120gm LP Vinyl - One pressed on opaque white vinyl & one on red vinyl.

Seine Mutter kennt ihn als Oliver Laporte, die Rock'n'Roll-Gemeinde unter dem Alias Roy Thompson. Als
eben solcher gründete er 2003 in Kanada die Royal Arcadians. Mit diesen zog er recht erfolgreich durch die
halbe Welt, bevor er 2010 die Formation Mellow Kings ins Leben rief. Bei dem Sextett handelt es sich um
einen Zusammenschluss sechs erfahrener Musiker aus Frankreich, die sich seit Urzeiten in der Rockin'-
Szene bewegen. Die Einflüsse reichen von Blues über R'n'B und Swing bis zum Rock der 50er und frühen
60er. Zum Live-Repertoire der Band gehören neben selbstgeschriebenen Stücken auch Songs von Ike
Turner, Ray Charles, T-Bone Walker, Larry Williams und Little Richard. 2012 spielten die Jungs mit "Back On
Tracks" ihr erstes Album für das Label Sleazy ein. Anschließend ging's auf Tour durch ganz Europa und in
die Staaten. Sie spielten sämtliche großen Festivals wie das Summer Jamboree (Italien), Let's Get Wild
(Deutschland) oder Rhythm Riot (England). Zwischenzeitlich fand sich sogar noch Zeit, neue Aufnahmen zu
produzieren. Sie sind auf dem zweiten Bandalbum "20 Days" versammelt, das via Stag-O-Lee in die Läden
kommt und zusätzlich zu zahlreichen Eigenkompositionen auch Stücke von Mike Pedicin, Little Richard,
Bobby Bland, Aaron Neville und Otis Blackwell enthält. Mit brutzelnden Gitarren, großartigen Klaviereinlagen
und einem Powersaxofon ist Roy Thompson und seinen entspannten Königen ein echtes Rockin'-
Meisterwerk gelungen.

Re-forming in 1989 after a decade apart, Manchester's Buzzcocks proved their
music had the staying power to remain relevant long after the new wave had broken.
Three years later, a televised show co-ordinated by influential British music paper
New Musical Express saw co-frontmen Steve Diggle and Pete Shelley combine with
a new rhythm section to deliver a visual and aural treat. Stunning stagecraft, new
songs and older favourites like 'Fast Cars', 'Autonomy' and 'What Do I Get' abound
from these maturing punk pioneers.

James Johnston and his band Gallon Drunk set the stage of London's Town &
Country Club ablaze when New Musical Express invited them to play a 1992 charity
concert entitled Viva Eight. The chaotic atmosphere that night spawned breathtaking
musical improvisation as the five-piece band tore through material from just-released
first album 'You, The Night...And The Music' plus single 'Draggin' Along'. With a family
tree connecting them with Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Faust and Marianne Faithfull,
Johnston and Gallon Drunk continue to make challenging music today; this is an early
chapter of their ongoing and still evolving story.

The English blues rock band The Yardbirds released
their album Roger the Engineer in 1966. It was the
only Yardbirds album with all original material.
Although the record was officially titled Yardbirds it has
since its release been referred to as Roger the
Engineer, a title stemming from the cover drawing of
the record's audio engineer Roger Cameron by band
member Chris Dreja. Due to the influence of Jeff
Beck's experimentation with guitar distortion, the
album is considered a precursor to heavy metal.

This 2016 LP reissue features the bonus non-album
single Happenings Ten Years Time Ago b/w Psycho
Daisies at the end of Side B.

The unlikely union of Suicide's Alan Vega, Big Star's Alex Chilton, and singer-songwriter Ben Vaughn happened in December 1994 in a fog of cigarette smoke at two barely-lit, all-night improv sessions at Dessau Studios in New York.
What transpired was the group's only release, a brilliant album called Cubist Blues.

Some kind of alchemy happened. The elements are disparate-Vega, known for Suicide's grinding, pre-industrial drone, Chilton for his ultra-melodic FM rock, and Vaughn for his outsider art. Put together, what came out was something totally unexpected, a long, mesmeric incantation built on Elvis-meets-Ian Curtis vocals, rockabilly guitar, growling synths, and metronomic drums.

A jam session at heart-albeit a very productive one-the songs took shape as they were recorded. "I showed up with lyrics for one song and figured we would see what happened," says Vega, recalling the first night in the brand new liner notes. "Little did I know, we would record for hours and hours. By the last song, my brain was burning up. I literally felt myself on fire. I was depleted. Yet, we could have gone on and on."

So-called supergroups get a bad rap for not equaling the sum of their parts. Vega, Chilton, and Vaughn add up to something from a place beyond any of them. Originally released by Henry Rollins on his 2.13.61 label via Thirsty Ear, the album failed to find any sort of audience-remarkable, considering its players, but reflective of the lull following Kurt Cobain's death and the collapse of the all-conquering grunge sound. The group played two live shows and then promptly went their separate ways. "At the time, I didn't fully realize how unique the Cubist Blues experience was," says Ben Vaughn now. "Looking back, it was magic to work with those guys."

Timeless, groundbreaking in sound even now, this is a chance to hear a woefully overlooked album that-had it not been so-might have re-shaped the next decade of music.

Lee Hazlewood was a late bloomer. Following a meandering career as a disc jockey, producer, songwriter, label executive and solo artist, Hazlewood hit the jackpot at the ripe age of 37 with These Boots Are Made For Walkin',' the song Nancy Sinatra took to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Its success convinced MGM Records that Hazlewood was a bankable star, and they signed him as an artist in his own right the same year. But as a self-described "non-singer" whose cult 1963 debut, Trouble Is A Lonesome Town, was little more than a happy accident, they'd perhaps gotten the wrong end of the stick where Lee was concerned.

In three years on the label, Hazlewood delivered three albums and sundry odds and ends, beginning with 1966 album The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood. The LP found Hazlewood gunning-in as much as he ever did-for commercial success, blending country, pop, novelty, mariachi, and lounge music into something unusually of-the-moment.

Lushly orchestrated and-like the album that preceded it-half-sung, half-spoken in a way that Hazlewood made all his own, the album collected solo versions of songs made famous by Sinatra and others ( Sand,' Boots,' So Long Babe,' Summer Wine'-included as a bonus duet with Suzi Jane Hokom) alongside some of his career-best solo compositions, among them the Morricone-like opener, For One Moment.' It's a record of extremes: When A Fool Loves A Fool' is as light and throwaway as anything he ever laid down, while the wistful My Autumn's Done Come' (sample lyric: "Let those I-don't-care days come in, I'm tired of holding my stomach in") is as raw and honest.

Despite MGM's best efforts, Hazlewood proved difficult to market without a Sinatra to temper his baritone drawl, and you'd suspect Hazlewood wasn't taking it quite as seriously as they might have hoped anyway. By 1967, Hazlewood had founded the LHI imprint and was busy building his own empire-one we've been lovingly archiving for the past few years. We now present this missing link in the story, plus follow-ups Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause and Cure (1967) and Something Special (1968). Welcome, then, to Hazlewood's magnificent MGM years.

The three years spent on MGM Records between 1966 and 1968 were golden ones for Lee Hazlewood.
He spent them working with his muse, Suzi Jane Hokom, writing a still-unreleased book, The Quiet Revenge of Elmo Furback, competing with Phil Spector from their respective studios, and coming up with the formula for the "boy/girl' songs for which he'd become famous. In fact, the unflattering portrait on the cover of Something Special did little to hint at how hip this late-flowering talent (he was in his late 30s when These Boots Are Made For Walkin'' made him a star songwriter) had become.

The common strand on the MGM trilogy is one of the unexpected happening. They were an ill fit for a major label-experimental, difficult to pigeonhole, and unpredictable. Those descriptors apply nowhere more aptly than Something Special. Where 1966's The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood and 1967's Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause And Cure had employed an arranger, Billy Strange, and a full orchestra, Something Special stripped things back and brought in a flavor of jazz and blues, complete with gravelly-voiced scatting courtesy of collaborator Don Randi. This sat alongside tracks like Little War' and Hands,' the kind of late night, acoustic balladeering Hazlewood would later seize for his career-highlight LP, Requiem For An Almost Lady. The sound was that of a stripped-down nightclub jazz/blues/folk combo, fully rejecting the psychedelic music going on all over the world.

The album made clear that forging a career as a serious star was not at the top of Hazlewood's agenda, and at the third opportunity, he'd let the listener in on the joke. Tellingly, Hokom recalls Hazlewood saying the MGM albums were his expensive demos. I'm sure that MGM thought that they would be successful.' Little chance of that with Something Special-it was originally released only in Germany. The same year, Hazlewood founded the LHI imprint, and began building his own empire, one we've been lovingly archiving for the past few years. We now present this missing link in the story, three albums that generated some of Hazlewood's best-and most varied-work.

Live at Carnegie Hall is a live Texas blues album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, released in 1997. The concert was recorded at New York City's Carnegie Hall on October 4, 1984, a day after Vaughan's thirtieth birthday (leading to Vaughan's description of the show as 'My best birthday ever ... forever').

Special guests included drummer George Rains, Dr. John on keyboards, the Roomful of Blues horn section, brother Jimmie Vaughan on guitar, and vocalist Angela Strehli. This was the first and only time in the band's history that the trio was expanded.

The set list was in large part Vaughan's personal, private, tribute to his role models; he played tunes by Guitar Slim, Albert Collins, and Albert King, all musicians who never got to perform in the legendary concert hall. The album charted on the Billboard 200, and was the #1 Blues album for eight weeks.

Howlin' Wolf is the third studio album from Chicago blues singer/guitarist/harmonica player Howlin' Wolf. It is a collection of six singles previously released by the Chess label from 1960 through 1962. Because of the illustration on its sleeve, the album is often called The Rockin' Chair Album, which was eventually adopted on subsequent pressings.

The album has had quite some influence on later musicians. In 1966, fellow Chess artist Koko Taylor recorded a cover version of Wang Dang Doodle' which reached #4 on the Billboard's R&B Charts and became a minor crossover hit. Earlier in 1963 Sam Cooke released a single of Little Red Rooster' making #7 on the R&B Singles chart and #11 on the Hot 100. In 1969 the songs Shake for Me' and Back Door Man' were used in the lyrics to the Led Zeppelin song Whole Lotta Love'.

Released in 1962, the same year that America's obsession died of an overdose of barbiturates in her Brentwood home, this Marilyn Monroe release compiles her tunes from the classic musicals "There's No Business Like Show Business", "River Of No Return" and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". Featuring songs from such legendary American songwriters as Hoagy Carmichael and Irving Berlin, Marilyn may not have been the most classically trained vocalist in history but the voice is undeniably recognizable and an American icon and damn did she look good doing it. In case you doubt that fact, this release comes with a 'ready to frame' picture of Ms. Monroe. Another American icon reissued on Rumble.

Unreleased versions of both tracks have been remastered specifically for vinyl. Gloria Jones, partner of the late superstar Marc Bolan and renowned Motown songwriter made Tainted Love famous in the sixties and inspired the hit by Marc Almond's Soft Cell in the early 80's. The B-side is a cover of the classic Moody Blues hit. The 7' singles are dinked in the U.S jukebox style which will appeal to the collectors of Northern soul records and comes in specially designed 'house bag'. There will only be 500 of these pressed up .
This new record label has been set up to produce records to help fund Gloria's charity in aid of the Marc Bolan School Of Music & Film.

Following the collapse of the original Magic Band in early 1974, Captain Beefheart swiftly assembled an all-new line-up to promote his controversial Unconditionally Guaranteed LP. Comprising Fuzzy Fuscaldo and Dean Smith (guitar), Del Simmons (sax, flute), Michael Smotherman (keyboards), Paul Uhrig (bass) and Ty Grimes (drums), they played in a markedly more straightforward style, in keeping with his stated ambition to 'hug the world'. This fine gig, live from the Cowtown Ballroom, Kansas City, MI was taped for broadcast on KUDL-FM radio on 22nd April 1974, and is presented here together with contemporaneous notes and photos.

Death Is Not The End get in the holiday spirit for this limited Christmas tape. Seasonal sermons, gospel, blues and American folk from the 1930s, 40s and 50s ft. Rev. A.W. Nix, Leadbelly, Rev. Edward W. Clayborn, Ralph Willis, Mary Harris, Rev. J.M. Gates, Dixon Borthers, Lil McClintock, Middle Georgia Four and more.

Blues rockers Hidden Charms have announced the upcoming release of their latest single Love You Cause You're There. The track serves as the perfect follow-up to their hugely successful debut double AA side single Dreaming Of Another Girl/Long Way Down, produced by Shel Talmy (The Who/The Kinks).

Comprising of Vincent Davies (singer, guitarist & bassist), Ranald Macdonald (co-singer, keyboardist, guitarist & bassist), Josh Lewis (guitarist & bassist) and Oscar Robertson (drummer), the London quartet have already supported the likes of Benjamin Booker, Hanni El Khatib and X Ambassadors, held a four-week Club NME Koko residency and received extensive airplay from the likes of Zane Lowe (Beats 1), Annie Mac (Radio 1), Huw Stephens (Radio 1) and John Kennedy (XFM) since forming in April 2014.

The Londoners' sound, both thrillingly new and yet drenched in musical history, has already earned them plenty of plaudits and with their debut EP due out early next year, Love You Cause You're There should provide a welcome taste of things to come.

In The Red presents installment number seven in The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion jukebox singles series. As with the previous six, the 7-inch features two exclusive tracks that lean towards the band's more rocking and spastic side.

... And they are four! Parma Brass released his fourth CD, and betting everything on "live": Swingin 'Christmas is not just a collection, but a real live concert in which one you'll find gospel and spiritual songs, arranged by the group to create a unique sound with the beautiful voices of ELENA GIARDINA and FABRIZIO BERTA. The recurring themes are that of Christmas, from White Christmas until to Oh Happy Day, but there are incursions in the musical, with pages from Sister Act, and in the large repertoire of songs badged Burt Bacarach.

TOO MUCH - The British HMV Singles '57 - '58 comes hot on the heels of LOVE ME The British HMV Singles '56 - '57 Volume 1 (VTRLP2038). This stunning must have vinyl offering from Vee-Tone Records, concludes their homage to Elvis Presley's highly collectible British HMV singles. Featuring all 5 HMV singles from 1957 to 1958, and including 'All Shook Up' (HMV POP 359), Elvis' very first UK number 1 single (plus bonus tracks from Elvis' two HMV EPs, 'Love Me Tender' and 'Good Rockin' Tonight'). When Elvis signed his new recording contract in November 1955, taking him from Sun Records in Memphis, to national music giant RCA Victor, nobody could have predicted the influence he would have on the course of popular music worldwide. Elvis' pioneering, early UK singles were released on EMIs, HMV label before being moved by British Decca over to RCA/RCA Victor in 1958. LOVE ME The British HMV Singles '56 - '57 (volume 1) and TOO MUCH The British HMV Singles '57 - '58 (volume 2), chart Elvis' meteoric rise in Britain.

500 Limited Edition
Quality 180g black vinyl / 180g coloured vinyl
Full colour inner sleeve
Liner notes

Contains all 5 British HMV singles from April '57 to January '58 in chronological order (plus bonus tracks taken from Elvis' two HMV EPs 'Love Me Tender' and 'Good Rockin' Tonight').

The mid-to-late '60s were strange days for Lee Hazlewood. Having struck gold as songwriter and vocal foil for Nancy Sinatra, he signed up to MGM as an artist in his own right, and between 1966 and 1968, produced three ambitious solo albums that were eclectic, idiosyncratic, and most of all, unpredictable.
It was a happy time for Lee; his music was hot on the charts, he was fully immersed in his collaboration with his muse, Suzi Jane Hokom.

The second of his MGM trilogy-1967's peculiarly named Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause And Cure-took on countrified French ye-ye ('The Girls In Paris'), a tale of a young bullfighter built on Spanish guitar and choral cowboys ('Jose'), a string-drenched song about the passing of time ('The Old Man And His Guitar'), and a western epic about a Native American tribe ('The Nights'). And that was just the first four tracks. Elsewhere, the honky tonk madness of 'Suzi Jane Is Back In Town,' the Byrds-like jangle of 'In Our Time' and-in the bonus tracks-an instrumental named 'Batman' confirm this to be one of Hazlewood's most far-ranging, far-out LPs ever.

It's the result of two main factors: ambition-to top Phil Spector, primarily-and cash, which paid for orchestras, plush studios, and the inestimable talents of arranger Billy Strange. 'I think the big sound of those records came out of the Spector thing,' says Hokom, in the new liner notes. 'If you can have a big sound and you have money to burn... it was a flamboyancy.'

Released before the Nancy & Lee LP-a bona fide hit for Reprise Records-Hazlewoodism was a tougher nut to crack, a record that confused by combining po-faced delivery with unabashed comical touches. By 1967, Hazlewood had founded the LHI imprint, and was busy building his own empire-one we've been lovingly archiving for the past few years. We now present this missing link in the story, plus predecessor, The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood and follow-up, Something Special. Welcome to Hazlewood's magnificent-and mad-MGM years.

The three years spent on MGM Records between 1966 and 1968 were golden ones for Lee Hazlewood.
He spent them working with his muse, Suzi Jane Hokom, writing a still-unreleased book, The Quiet Revenge of Elmo Furback, competing with Phil Spector from their respective studios, and coming up with the formula for the "boy/girl' songs for which he'd become famous. In fact, the unflattering portrait on the cover of Something Special did little to hint at how hip this late-flowering talent (he was in his late 30s when 'These Boots Are Made For Walkin'' made him a star songwriter) had become.

The common strand on the MGM trilogy is one of the unexpected happening. They were an ill fit for a major label-experimental, difficult to pigeonhole, and unpredictable. Those descriptors apply nowhere more aptly than Something Special. Where 1966's The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood and 1967's Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause And Cure had employed an arranger, Billy Strange, and a full orchestra, Something Special stripped things back and brought in a flavor of jazz and blues, complete with gravelly-voiced scatting courtesy of collaborator Don Randi. This sat alongside tracks like 'Little War' and 'Hands,' the kind of late night, acoustic balladeering Hazlewood would later seize for his career-highlight LP, Requiem For An Almost Lady. The sound was that of a stripped-down nightclub jazz/blues/folk combo, fully rejecting the psychedelic music going on all over the world.

The album made clear that forging a career as a serious star was not at the top of Hazlewood's agenda, and at the third opportunity, he'd let the listener in on the joke. Tellingly, Hokom recalls Hazlewood saying the MGM albums were his 'expensive demos. I'm sure that MGM thought that they would be successful.' Little chance of that with Something Special-it was originally released only in Germany. The same year, Hazlewood founded the LHI imprint, and began building his own empire, one we've been lovingly archiving for the past few years. We now present this missing link in the story, three albums that generated some of Hazlewood's best-and most varied-work.